Opinions from Others.
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Parceleara in Southampton and District, The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1249] Sir,—We observe on page 130 of your current issue a paragraph to the effect that the sole agency for the London district and for " the South oh England," for the Wall parcelear, has been taken up by our friends, Sydney Westall and Co., Ltd., London.
May we ask you to state that we have ourselves been appointed (under signed contract) agents for the Wall parcelcar for the Hampshire district, so that, if this is included in the term "the South of England," the statement we refer to needs correction.
In view of our obligations under our contract, we would like possible purchasers in our district to have this information befere them in the next issue. of your valuable journal.—Yours faithfully, Southampton. PARSONS .ND KEMEALL, LID. lath October, 1913.
Where Shall I Deal ?
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
{1250] Sir,—This question ought not to be allowed to drop. It ought to be discussed by owners at their C.M.U.A. branch meetings, and a downright practical discussion it ought to produce.
The motor agent who has a big garage is, obviously, a valuable intermediary betwixt manufacturer and customer. How and why ? The latter is perhaps an ordinary car customer, and begins to talk commercialmotor potentialities. The agent primes him with facts and figures, gives data, shifts doubts, writes letters of inquiry, removes fetters of anxiety ; in short, he does all the donkey-work of proving that commercial motors are sound business propositions, and has the garage and men to handle such vehicles.
What happens Mr. Customer writes to a few makers, gets terms which (as recent letters show) are singularly like or below the agent's prices, and places the order direct.
This game is not fair to the agent who has extolled commercial motors. Does the "direct buyer" expect a local repair man, whether ordinary engineer or motor expert, to be as attentive to his van when an accident occurs? Not likely.—Yours faithfully, " MAX."
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1251] Sir,—The first thing we would like to say is that there exists without doubt a need for the right sort of agent. It is all very well for manufacturers on the one hand and users on the other to talk about doing the whole of their business direct., but such people are apt to lose sight of the fact that. in whatever way manufactured goods are brought to the person for whom they are being manufactured a certain
cost is bound to be incurred. This -cost must of course fall on the user, and it makes no difference to him whether the manufacturer adds to his production charges by taking on the whole of the sales organization as well as manufacturing, or whether he turns that over to a third party who is specially qualified for dealing with it. In both eases, the cost, whatever it may be, has to be paid by the. user. The question remains as to whether it is cheaper and better for the manufacturer to do this work himself, or for him to turn it over to other firms specially cut out for dealing with it. The writer's contention is that—provided the manufacturer gets into touch with the right sort of agent—it is better for all concerned for the business to he dove through the latter.
There are various reasons for this, one being that the agent resides on the particular territory allotted to him, and, therefore, travelling expenses, to begin with, are less than they would be if the ground was worked from a distance. Second, the agent has a ?loser acquaintance with the nature of his district., and also with the requirements of the prospective users in it, than the manufacturers can possibly have ; consequently, he is of valuable assistance on that account to both. Thirdly, the expenses of an agent's establishment are not exactly concentrated on the one line, by which we mean that in addition to the vehicles themselves there are lubricants, tires, and accessories all to he, considered, and which all bear their proportions, of the establishment charges.
There are, of course„ very few bona-fide commercialvehicle agents in the United Kingdom. We do not advocate an increase in their number on the foolish lines which the pleasure-car trade have followed, but we do think that those people who, like ourselves, are specially equipped and tramed..for the business, and who have premises designed and suited for the work, and specially selected men for dealing with it, should be properly recognized by manufacturers.
We may say that this question is one which ought to be tackled, not only from the vehicle point of view, but also from that of accessories. We mean that users ought not to be supplied with accessories of any sort at trade prices. By this, we do not for one moment mean that they should be made to pay an exorbitant price, but we do mean that the manufacturers of the various accessories should deal with commercial-vehicle users on the same lines as pleasure-car misers. When the agent, out of his knowledge and experience, is willing to give users the benefit, his position should be safeguarded; and the trade should pass through his hands—Yours faithfully,
P.P. THE HARRIS MOTOR CO., LTD., BUTslern. F. W. HARRIS.
A Challenge as to Resiliency.
Time Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[12.52] Sir,—Our friends "The Enemy," namely, the Be Nevers Rubber Tyre Co., state' In their advertisement in your issue of the 2nd inst., that they "make the most resilient tires produced, and invite inquiry as to this assertion."
We do not wish to quarrel with the De Nevers Co., and it would be folly for us to endeavour to belittle the reputation which their tirea have no doubt established, but we cannot for a moment admit their claim that they make the "most resilient" tires. We., therefore, invite them, in all friendliness, to prove their assertion.
In order to give them an opportunity of doing so, we offer to submit one of our standard super-resilient tires, which, as you will no doubt be aware, contain as a special feature a pad or layer of pure, soft, and resilient rubber, to be tested, for resilience, against any standard De Nevers tire, which we are assuming does not now and never did contain the special patented feature of the super-resilient layer ? As they are the challenged party, we will agree to permit them to choose the time, the place, and the mode of test: the only proviso we make is that the test shall be conducted by some entirely-independent and competent authority, agreeable to each of us. We claim that any solid tire suitable for commercial use, which does not contain our special pad of soft pure rubber, cannot, in the very nature, of things, offer the resiliency that ours does. We may say that when we introduced the Seymour patent tire,' we alsoecoined a. new word (or at least new as applied to band tires) to describe it, namely, " super-resilient "—as advertised regularly.
We are interested to note one of our competitors thinks so highly -of this word that they have introduced it into their advertisement. This is a compliment., for which we are duly grateful.—Yours f ally, ST. HELENS CABLE AND RUBBER CO., LTD., WALTER BOND, Warrington. Rubber Dept. Sales Manager.
Opinions from Others—cm', Prom a Builder and Decorator.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1253] your issue of the 9th inst., a Hill naa..n van is illustrated as being of use to builders and decorators. I have had over 10 years experience in this business, and from illustration and discription fail to see how this van will he of use to anyone in this trade, except the particular firm for whom it was built. No doubt, you are well aware that, in the decorator's business, the majority of plant and material is bulky, but not necessarily heavy, whilst in the builder's department both are usually heavy. Take an instance, for a decorating job. There are a hundred and one items, and, if a platform becly be used, all the materials can be stored on the floor, whilst plant, such as steps, boards and ladders, can be carried over the front, at the side of the driver, and extend at rear, over tailboard, added to which men as well can comfortably sit on top of the plant. With the building trade proper, such articles as sand, cement, bricks, etc., have to be contended with, and I cannot see how a yard of sand, or " 500 " stock bricks are going to be 'carried in the Hillman. In each of the foregoning items, the weight is in the neighbourhood of 25 cwt.
My firm have a converted Charron lorry with a platform body, and find it most convenient. We cat ry out work occasionally in London, and among the items necessary to complete the last was ton cement, i• yd. sand, some 12 ft. scaffold boards, several pairs of trestles 14 ft. long, and some ladders, the length of the longest being 65 rounds (equal to about 50 ft.). London builders have ladders much longer even than this. It would be interesting to know how the makers would manage, anywhere, with such an awkward and heavy load as this, on a Hillman van.
In conclusion, I might mention that one of the really few vans suited to its business, belongs to the big contractors and decorators, Messrs. Trollope and Calls, and it can be seen practically every day in London and suburbs, loaded right. up.—Yours faith
fully, EDWIN P. JOHNSON. West Ealing.
Are Tractors Too PowerTul?
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
112541 Sir,—I read in your last. week's issue that "Tot Homines " asks me how I would use the weight which I propose to save by limiting the dimensions of the engine and boiler to such sizes as are actually needed for tractive purposes, and appears to be under the impression that the only purpose I could use it for would be to increase the weight of the wheels. Well, there are many other ways in which it may be utilized; for instance, a reasonable system of spring suspension might be incorporated in the design, and the tender or footplate might be made of such dimensions as to permit of the driver's performing his duties with a reasonable degree of comfort, and also to allow him to carry greater supplies of fuel and water on the tractor, instead of their taking up useful space on the trailer for such supplies when long distances have to be travelled. • Increased diameter of driving wheels would conduce to smoother running and to less wear and tear of all the parts, and the increase in diameter need not necessarily mean an increase in weight. I agree that, so long as tractor wheels are built upon old-fashioned lines, with the spokes placed in compression by the load, as well as in " bend " by the driving effort, the weight of the wheels will go up in proportion greatly in excess of the increased diameter ; but Col. Crompton has shown us that, by putting the spokes in tension, and relieving them entirely of driving stress, a much lighter wheel may be constructed for a given strength. Some years ago, he built a tractor with driving wheels 7 ft. in diameter, vet of a weight c16 below that of the ordinary type of 5 ft. tractor wheel. I believe that his 7 ft. wheels showed some weakness in the rim, due to the fact that the edges were more or less unsupported, but angle-ring reinforcements would have made them strong enough, without greatly increasing their weight. Road engineers, and probably the majority of motor-vehicle builders, are, however, now more or less agreed that the bogey of unsprung weight only applies to wheels which are relatively small in diameter.
Mr. T. C. Aveling's letter, in the same issue, interested me very much, because I know him to be an engineer with a vast experience of road loco.s, but, in quoting a particular example in support of his argument, I fear that he has selected one that supports my contention, namely, that some tractors are overengined. t The Broom and Wade tractor, which participated in the War Department Trials of 1909, as stated by Mr. Aveling, had a single-cylinder engine, stated to give 25 b.h.p., and it is quite correct that less slip took place with its driving wheels than was the ease with the Thornycroft tractor, the reason being that the engine was not sufficiently powerful to skid the wheels. This is the very point I wish to enforce. Many steam tractors are so powerful that they can skid the wheels under almost any condition of road surface, and this excess of power is useless, because at no time can it be put to practical use on the road. The only effect it can and does have is to break up the driving wheels, as most tractor users can sorrowfully affirm. I know at least one maker who claims that his tractor engine is capable of developing 45 b.h.p. Does Mr. Aveling consider that so much power is either necessary or can be applied at the wheel rim ? If not, why provide so much ? It is time we put aside "selling points" and came down to actual requirements. I fear that I am not quite clear what Mr. Aveling means by dividing the tender. I understand, however, that he wishes to lift the drawbar bracket, so that the trailer end of the drawbar is considerably below that of the tractor end, and thus, by reason of the upward component of the drawbar pull, impose a corresponding downward load on the drawbar bracket; this downward load would transfer to the back axle an increased load, proportional to the wheelbase of the tractor and the distance of the overhang of the tender and drawbar bracket. I quite agree that such an arrangement is desirable, and that it would be effective in giving increased adhesion, but I cannot understand why it should be necessary to divide the tender, in order to embody the arrangement in a practical design. Perhaps Mr. Aveling will supply a sketch showing what he means.—Yours faithfully,
" VERAX."
The Editor, TEE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1255] Sir,—This question appears to us to evolve itself into rather one of weight on the driving wheels than power in the engine. Mr. Aveling's letter is extremely interesting on this point. Experience would indicate that the load-carrying tractor on this account is preferable to the other type, as the load on the tractor can be increased for tractive effect when required. As a case in illustration, we would point out that. the La France tractor-wagon with the Manly hydraulic transmission and a draw-bar pull equal to 10,000 lb. or thereabouts, and with six tons load on the wagon, finds no difficulty in hauling a gross load behind the tractor of something like 35 tons, and in taking fifteenton loads up gradients of one in ten.
In a recent development of this machine, this point of making the load help to secure adhesion has been dealt with in an outfit built for a timber merchant. In this, a two-wheeled trailer is attached to the wagon, the tail-end of which carries the forward part of the load, the bulk of which weight rests on the trailer, and in this way twenty-ton loads are regularly conveyed.— L Yours faithfully, BRAMCO TD. Coventry.